"With certain exceptions, werewolves are people just like like anybody else."
I was going to stop with the last one but for some reason decided to continue my werewolf streak that I had going. Teen Wolf (1985) was one of my favorite movies as a kid, let's see how it holds up. Teen Wolf is a coming of age story with a hairy twist. Michael J. Fox plays Scott Howard an average kid in everyday who wishes he could be a superstar. When it turns out he has a hereditary curse, he makes the best of it and suddenly his life is spectacular.
I liked how this movie turned the werewolf infliction into a hereditary "gift." I thought this was a pretty original idea. There's a lot of good parts and small ideas going on in this movie I just feel like they're not executed in the best ways.
Oh and Michael J. Fox is Michael J. Fox. So that's good.
My biggest qualm with this movie is about halfway through I felt like this movie lacked a whole lot of substance. There's long scenes that really don't do much and honestly I've seen 20 minute TV show episodes that had more content than this 90 minute movie!
One of the biggest problems with this movie is it was released mid eighties, which means it's very dated by now. It's not the worst I've seen, but most of this movies jokes weren't funny and I'm not sure if it's because they just weren't funny or if it's because I'm not currently in the eighties?
The movie's story is just plain bad. The best way to sum it up is this movie feels very soft. Nothing really is ever that difficult for Scott, honestly nothing feels like it's really at stake for the kid. He has a 3rd string friend that won't talk to him but he doesn't apparently care, his misbehavior doesn't apparently affect his home life, and the bully doesn't even come close to beating him up or really seem that threatening at all. Which makes the movie pretty boring. I'm not sure if this is the writer(s) trying to say that high school problems don't matter anyway or if their just plain bad writers who can't even develop a decent conflict for the kid.
I feel like the big point of the movie is missed. The way the movie set it up is that he has this long time girl friend who likes him but Scott doesn't realize it because he's too busy looking at the pretty blonde popular girl. He goes through wolf-puberty and suddenly the popular girl takes a liking to him along with most other people at his school. But there's a part where after the popular girl uses him he asks the friend out to the school dance (his second choice) and she says yes on one condition: that he goes as himself and not the wolf. He refuses, and she laughs it off (?) and says she'll dance with him anyway!? Then later that night the reason he realizes he doesn't need to use the wolf and he needs to be himself is that the poplar girl wont dance with him? HE ALREADY GOT USED BY HER. You missed the point you stupid writer! The friend should have left pissed when he says he won't go as himself then later that night he should have realized he had the perfect girl right under his nose the whole time! Instead for no apparent reason he decides after being blown off again by the popular girl to play the basketball game as a regular Joe. We show waaaay too much of the basketball game and they somehow win without the power of the wolf (yay) and he blows off the popular girl (revenge?) It's like the same ending without a satisfying middle to make you feel good when get you there!
I'm sorry to say I can't find anything magnificent about this movie, maybe that the movie was popular enough to spawn a sequel, an animated TV show and a current TV show on MTV. That's pretty amazing, considering the source material...
Teen Wolf (1985) is a dated product of the eighties. If you want to see if for nostalgia, let me warn you... it unfortunately doesn't hold up. It's basically a good idea that they didn't know what to do with. 2.5/5 stars.
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